As New York City-area-based GRIDFAILURE and mid-Texas-based FEEL HAPPINESS prepare for the release of their instrumental split EP in September, inquisitive music blog Captured Howls has premiered a new track from both experimental solo outfits.
On the new vocal-free cooperative release, GRIDFAILURE‘s four new tracks were recorded and mixed at The Compound in Rockland County, New York by the outfit’s David Brenner, who also designed the album’s cover art. The three new tracks from FEEL HAPPINESS were recorded and mixed by founder Lane Oliver at the Dreadroom in Arlington, Texas. The record was mastered by Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering (Kool Keith, Dwarves, Krieg).
Captured Howls writes, “GRIDFAILURE‘s track ‘Swarming’ feels like a sonic encapsulation of encroaching menace drawn straight from the natural world. Tones that clearly and poignantly evoke an expanse of darkness that proves not so empty after all under the weight of something like an oncoming torrential thunderstorm occupy front-and-center space here. The sheer force of this delivery ensures that this sonic darkness lands with a shivering thud. Meanwhile, the FEEL HAPPINESS track ‘I’ve Cut Your Armies Down And Torn Your Heart’ takes a somewhat different direction, revealing passionately sinister tones lurking around the corners of ‘normalcy.’ There’s a driving riff pattern centered in the core of this track, but it’s absolutely drenched in noise and atmosphere patterns enough to pry carefully placed mental moorings right from their place and throw everything around.”
Tap into Captured Howls’ investigation of the instrumental GRIDFAILURE / FEEL HAPPINESS split RIGHT HERE.
The GRIDFAILURE / FEEL HAPPINESS split will see digital release through Bandcamp on Friday, September 13th. Find preorders via FEEL HAPPINESS where “God Bless You All On The Earth” is streaming HERE and GRIDFAILURE’s page where “This Liquefaction” is streaming HERE.
Brenner offers, “‘Swarming’ has been kicking around for a while; one of those songs that’s been set for several different titles over the past couple of years, but when this instrumental split was coming together, this track was the first one I decided to simply finish and sort of base my half of the record’s sound upon. I decided to just strip it down and boost everything. Mutant layers of buzzsaw blackened guitar, a post-industrial mech beat, divebombing banshee keys… It’s the sound of the earth opening up beneath you, of existential collapse, of paranoia swarming you.”
Oliver provides, “”I recorded the main guitar riff with the intention of using it for my previous EP, The Inevitable Embrace of Earth, but it just didn’t feel right for that release. When Dave and I agreed on doing a split together with our respective projects, I decided to revisit the riff to see what could be done with it. I was drawing blanks creatively, so I decided to send it to my partner, Victoria Rose, to see what she could bring to the track. She totally went above and beyond, and sent me several layers of wailing violins, and ominous keys. She deserves full credit in shaping the track into what it is now; the theme song to a pagan ritual gone horribly wrong.”
Additional titles from each act are also in the works, including a fully collaborative album.
GRIDFAILURE Live:
9/01/2019 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ meth., Horse Torso [info]
9/25/2019 Century Bar – Philadelphia, PA w/ Oxx, Somnolent/Hallucinogenic Bulb, Warp And Weft
9/26/2019 TBA – New Jersey
10/25/2019 TBA – Brooklyn, NY
With up to ten titles seeing release in 2019 alone, New York City-area’s GRIDFAILURE delivers four new tracks in less than sixteen minutes, offering some of the outfit’s most direct/driving songs to date. While void of lyrics, vocals, or samples, multiple demoralizing personalities of the outfit show through. Natural disasters and dystopian wastelands are represented in “This Liquefaction” and “Cryomechanical” while “Swarming” delves into the most bizarre realms of horror and terror, and closer “Wetworkers Local 845” simply exposes the demented core of the project. The tormented inner duality lies beneath the surface of each track, the act’s lone hostile alchemist David Brenner performing effects-soaked guitars, bass, acoustic and electric drums/drum machines, contact mic experimentation, keys, synth, and more, all swirling with turbulent nature field recordings. Fans of dark ambient, harsh noise, dark hardcore, and horror/suspense cinema are advised to fall into the void.
Having formed in recent months, launching with the release of a debut EP, FEEL HAPPINESS offers three tracks of slow-burning, apocalyptic flair on the split. The North Texas solo act of one Lane Oliver subjects the listener to explosive, unsettling compositions comprised of raw, droning guitars, moody keys, wailing violins, and mangled field recordings. From drone metal meditation on environmental collapse (“God Bless You All On The Earth”), to pagan horror movie soundtrack doom (“I’ve Cut Your Armies Down And Torn Your Heart”), to melancholic introspection (“All You Are Is Meat”), there’s no escape from the dark and dreary here. Victoria Rose supplies guest keys and violins on “I’ve Cut Your Armies Down And Torn Your Heart.” Fans of Soundtracks For The Blind-era Swans and Sunn O))) should take note.
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